Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Early this morning the local television station WRAL, Raleigh,
NC, broadcast news that the first of “four Confederate monuments in New
Orleans…honoring white supremacy” will come down today.

The fate of these monuments has been debated now for a number of
years, with the majority black city government wanting to expunge these
reminders of New Orleans’ history, while various heritage and
preservation organizations have fought to keep them in place.

The one that comes down today is the “Liberty Monument,” an obelisk
erected in 1891 to commemorate the overthrow of Reconstruction.
Proponents argued that it is a symbol of “white supremacy” and racism,
while defenders declared that, although it may be offensive to some, it
also an integral part of the city’s history and, thus, should be kept
where it is as a part of that history.

But it is the remaining three monuments that raise the most
vociferous ire of traditionalists and those concerned about preserving
the historical record: the city plans to take down statues to Generals
Robert E. Lee and P. G. T. Beauregard, and President Jefferson Davis.

Unlike the Liberty Monument, which symbolizes the political
redemption of the city from Reconstruction, the Lee, Beauregard and
Davis monuments commemorate exemplary individuals who ended up defending
a lost cause. Through honoring them, the city fathers had honored the
soldiers and the extreme sacrifices and hardships endured during a
brutal war 155 years ago. But, as we know, history often does not treat
well the champions of a lost cause; the victors usually write the
histories and establish the narrative.

The effort to take down these symbols reflects a frenzied desire to,
in effect, efface portions of our history, to revise the past, if it no
longer comports with the ideological Marxist vision that is currently
fashionable and politically-correct. Certainly, one can argue that each
generation engages in a bit of revising; that is part and parcel of what
human beings do, to enhance their history and their genealogy, while downplaying events and individuals that may not fit smoothly into the current narrative.

Those who argue that the New Orleans monuments should come down
suggest that what is needed is a re-interpretation and a revised view of
history, and that such monuments only serve to remind us of past “sins”
of racism and white oppression, slavery, and rebellion.

Yet, a deeper issue demands consideration. What does such zealous
“purification,” such “censorship,” such abrupt dislocation, do to our
understanding of who we are as a people? What happens when we radically
suppress, re-arrange, and expel integral portions of our past? Does not
such extreme surgery leave us bereft of a fuller understanding of our
historical experience?

The great late nineteenth century Spanish philosopher, Marcel
Menendez y Pelayo, once said of Spain, that it was the shining champion,
buckler, and defender of Christendom: “this is your heritage, you have
no other,” he cautioned. Cannot this same metaphor be applied to the
South? Can there be, truly, a real South without not only
monuments commemorating noble men like Robert E. Lee, but also an
understanding that men like Lee and Davis and Beauregard occupy a
pivotal role in our history, and that their vision and their lives were
exemplary and admirable witnesses in the difficult historical era in
which they lived? Must everything be compressed and re-interpreted by a
sharply defined, ideological historicist litmus test?

Where, indeed, does such a process of homogenization and re-writing
stop? George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other Founders of this
nation were slave holders; must their monuments be taken down and their
names suppressed, too? Must their legacies be radically revised, and
their essential roles in the creation of this nation be ideologically
perverted? The triumphant cultural Marxist school of historical
writing, the Eric Foners of the historical establishment, would have it
so, and in so doing, they turn history into fanatical ideology.
Hollywood and the dominant popular culture follow along like yelping
pups, parroting in offensive and over-the-top exaggeration the new
dogmatism that reigns nearly supreme.

One cannot transgress the new totalitarian dogmatism. Not only our
media, our entertainment, and our educational establishment, but even
some of our friends who should know better, participate in this insane
brainwashing acceptance that warps our understanding of our past.

Our objective, then, must be to redeem our history, recover the past,
paint it in all its colors; but keep all our monuments and all our
artifacts up and visible, recognizing that not everyone will see them in
the same light. Yet, even those symbols that some may find
objectionable tell a story and open a window on our past. And to
comprehend who we are, we neglect such a full vision at our great peril.

A people without a past, that is, a real and discernible history, is a
people with no real future.

From about 1500 BC to 1200 BC, the Mediterranean region played host to a
complex cosmopolitan and globalized world-system. It may have been this
very internationalism that contributed to the apocalyptic disaster that
ended the Bronze Age. When the end came, the civilized and
international world of the Mediterranean regions came to a dramatic halt
in a vast area stretching from Greece and Italy in the west to Egypt,
Canaan, and Mesopotamia in the east. Large empires and small kingdoms
collapsed rapidly. With their end came the world’s first recorded Dark
Ages. It was not until centuries later that a new cultural renaissance
emerged in Greece and the other affected areas, setting the stage for
the evolution of Western society as we know it today. Professor Eric H.
Cline of The George Washington University will explore why the Bronze
Age came to an end and whether the collapse of those ancient
civilizations might hold some warnings for our current society.

Considered
for a Pulitzer Prize for his recent book 1177 BC, Dr. Eric H. Cline is
Professor of Classics and Anthropology and the current Director of the
Capitol Archaeological Institute at The George Washington University. He
is a National Geographic Explorer, a Fulbright scholar, an NEH Public
Scholar, and an award-winning teacher and author. He has degrees in
archaeology and ancient history from Dartmouth, Yale, and the University
of Pennsylvania; in May 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctoral
degree (honoris causa) from Muhlenberg College. Dr. Cline is an active
field archaeologist with 30 seasons of excavation and survey experience.

The
views expressed in this video are those of the speaker and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the National Capital Area Skeptics.

On August 6, 2011, 30 US service members were killed
when a CH-47 Chinook helicopter they were being transported in crashed
in Wardak province, Afghanistan. It was the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. 17 members of the elite Navy SEALs were killed in the crash.

How does a man live with himself doing such things? Ross Kemp, a British investigative journalist,
interviewed a self-professed child trafficker from India in 2013. If
confessing to child trafficking were not enough, the man in the
interview claims to have killed somewhere between 4-500 little girls.

The man in the interview is referred to as "Mr. Kahn." Most child
traffickers are embarrassed or will not confess to such depravity, but
not Kahn. He is on record confessing to selling thousands of children
into sex slavery and killing hundreds that he was not able to sell.

In a poll conducted a few days ago by NBC News / Wall Street Journal, a record 57% of Americans responded that they want MORE government in their lives, and that the government should be doing more to solve people’s problems.

That’s the highest percentage since they started asking this question in 1995.

President Trump will round out his first 100 days in the Oval Office
at the end of the week. He's already taken heat from the media and his
critics about a lack of accomplishments, which is unfair and inaccurate.

For conservatives and the pro-life movement, if the election had gone
the other way, these first 100 days would be the start of a very long
nightmare.

There would be no pro-life attorney general and secretary of health and human services.

Taxpayers would still be funding international abortion groups.

A Supreme Court justice in the mold of pro-abortion Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg would have been seated on the bench.

Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards and all her friends would have
staffed the West Wing and Oval Office, instead of pro-lifers like
Kellyanne Conway and Vice President Mike Pence.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said President Trump will not
budge on his main priorities for the spending bill to keep the
government fully running past Friday, namely his controversial wall for
the southern border.

Spicer told reporters Trump is negotiating with House and Senate
leaders on the continuing resolution to keep the government open and
avoid a partial shutdown. It appears the wall along the border with
Mexico might end up being one of the major sticking points in
negotiations to get a bill on Trump's desk by Friday.

A federal judge on Monday declared a mistrial after a jury
deadlocked on conspiracy counts against six men charged in the 2014
armed standoff between the Bureau of Land Management and Nevada’s Bundy
ranching family.

The jury had reached guilty verdicts earlier
Monday on lesser charges against two of the six defendants, but jurors
declared themselves “hopelessly deadlocked” on federal conspiracy
charges against the group.

Greg Burleson, 53, of Phoenix, and
Todd Engel, 49, of Boundary County, Idaho, were found guilty of
obstruction of justice and interstate travel in aid of extortion
stemming from the April 2014 clash over grazing rights on federal land.

Burleson,
who was described as an ex-FBI informant and shown in a video saying
he posed as a member of a bogus film crew during the standoff, was
convicted on six other counts, including threatening and assaulting a
federal officer.

“On the same day that some southern states were honoring
their rebel heritage, masked workers in New Orleans dismantled a
monument to that past — chunk by chunk, under darkness and the
protection of police snipers.

“We will no longer allow the Confederacy to literally be put on a
pedestal,” Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D) said after a 19th-century obelisk
honoring what the mayor called “white supremacists” was taken down early
Monday. …

After a small group of protesters dispersed about 1:30 a.m., police officers barricaded surrounding streets, and snipers
took position on a rooftop above the statue, according to the
Times-Picayune. By 3 a.m., workers were drilling into the obelisk’s pale
stonework.

Contractors wore face masks, helmets and what one reporter described
at a news conference the next morning as “militarylike bulletproof
vests.” Landrieu said the workers were disguised for their protection.
…”

What lessons can we draw from this?

1.) We stayed out of these heritage fights for a reason. We wanted to
illustrate that groups like the SCV are incapable of preserving our
heritage with their preferred methods.

The entire U.S. Senate has been invited to the White House for a
briefing Wednesday on the North Korea situation, amid escalating
tensions over the country’s missile tests and bellicose rhetoric.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer confirmed the upcoming briefing, for all 100 senators, on Monday.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of
Defense Jim Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph
Dunford and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats plan to provide
the update to lawmakers.

Remembrance

Winners: Navy Cross Nguyen Van Kiet & MOH Thomas R. Norris This week’s Medal of Honor hero is one of a handful of Navy SEALs awarded the MOH in the Vietnam War. Norris snuck behind enemy lines with a South Vietnamese Navy petty officer rescued two downed pilots in 1972–when most of our resources had been pulled from the country. Interesting to note that later year, Norris was himself rescued by another SEAL Michael E. Thornton.More @ Medal of Honor Roll Call

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Core Creek Militia

==============================My sixth great grandfather, his wife, and five of his six children were killed in battle with the Tuscarora Indians at Core Creek, NC.

The Seven Blackbirds

==============================My third great grandfather was an Ensign in the Revolutionary War, and saved his unit's flag after being wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. He was also at Kingston (Kinston), Wilmington, Charleston, Two Sisters and Augusta. He was at the defeat at Brier Creek and also Bee Creek.

Requiem Aeternam -
Eternal Rest Grant unto Them
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My second great grandfather was killed in action on May 3, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
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My great grandfather and great uncle knew all the men in the "Civil War Requiem" video as they were part of the 53rd NC which was the sole unit defending Fort Mahone. (Fort Mahone was named "Fort Damnation" by the Yankees) *Handpicked men of the 53rd (My great grandfather was one of these) made the final, night assault at Petersburg in an attempt to break Grant's line. This was against Fort Stedman which was a few miles to the slight northeast. They initially succeeded, but reinforcements drove them back. This video is made from photographs which were taken the day after the 53rd evacuated the lines the night before to begin the retreat to Appomattox. I have many more pictures taken by the same photographer, one of these shows a 14 year old boy and the other is the famous picture of the blond, handsome soldier with his musket.
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*General Gordon promised the men a gold medal and 30 days leave if they accomplished their task and many years after the War my great grandfather wrote General Gordon, who was then governor of Georgia about this incident. They exchanged several letters which I have framed. See first link below.
===========================
*The Attack On Fort Stedman
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"His Colored Friends"
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Lee's Surrender
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My Black NC Kinfolks
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Punished For Being Caught!

Great Grandfather Koonce

He was a drummer boy in the WBTS, survived the War only to die a few years later. He was caught in an ice storm on his way home, but instead of seeking shelter, continued on his horse until the end. His clothes had to be cut off and he died a few days later.